condition characterized by a questioning of the notion of progress and history

there is no longer one version of history that is correct

social constructions

something that exists because people behave as if it exists and whose existence continues as people and social institutions act in accordance with the widely agreed upon rules or norms of behavior associated with it

(how women behave compared to men is a social construction)

midrange theory

attempts to predict how certain social institutions tend to function

microsociology

seeks to understand local interactional context

methods: observation and interviews

macrosociology

concerned with social dynamics at a higher level of analysis- across the breadth of a society

quantitative methods

numeric form (surveys)

qualitative methods

methods that cannot be converted to numbers (observation)

deductive approach

theory-hypothesis-observations-analyzes the data to confirm, reject or modify the original theory

a situation in which the researcher believes that A results in a change in B, but B, in fact, is causing A (if a person's incomedrops after getting sick, it was sickness that led to the decline in income)

feminist methodology

set of methods that treat women’s experiences as legit resource

sample

subset of a population from which you are actually collecting data

case study

an intensive investigation of one particular unit in order to uncover its mechanisms

focused on ONE thing

participant observation (data collection)

qualitative research method that seeks to uncover meanings people give their behavior

historical methods (data collection)

research that collects data from written reports, newspaper articles, journals, transcripts, television programs, diaries, artwork, and other artifacts that date to a prior time period under study

comparative research (data collection)

two or more things (such as countries), which are similar in many dimensions but differ in one are compared to learn about why that one thing is different

content analysis (data collection)

analysis of the content rather than the structure of a communication, such as a written work, speech or film

culture

a set of beliefs, traditions, and practices; total of social categories and concepts we embrace that is not the natural environment around us

ethnocentrism

belief that ones own culture or group is superior to others and the tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of ones own

nonmaterial culture

values, beliefs, behaviors and social norms

material culture

everything that is a part of our constructed, physical environment, including technology

ideology

a system of concepts and relationships, and understanding of cause and effect

cultural relativism

taking into account the differences across cultures without passing judgment or assigning value

cultural scripts

modes of understanding that are not universal or natural (shape notions about things like gender)

subculture

values

moral beliefs

norms

how values tell us to behave

socialization

process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society

reflection theory

culture reflects society's underlying realities

rappers sing about violence because they come from violent backgrounds

culture jamming

act of turning media against themselves (tobacco companies making ads with sick people)

self

the individual identity of a person as perceived by that same person

I

one’s sense of agency, action, or power

me

the self as perceived as an object by the “I”; the self as one imagines others perceive one